Mysidia Adoptables v1.3.3[Security Release]

[Hall of Famer]

It is finally about time to reveal the next version of Mysidia Adoptables to the public. This Mys v1.3.3 is also a significant improvement over the last version rather than a maintenance release. It has several new features that you may wish to explore, here are a list of them:

1. Enhanced Object Oriented code and SEO friendly URL: Just like what I've been doing in Mys v1.3.2, Mys v1.3.3 signifies another huge leap for the development of this script in OOP. The concept of front/app-controller is being applied everywhere in the script, Mys v1.3.3 introduces 100+ new classes/object types. In a perfect script everything is an object, so this is the right direction to go. The benefits of OOP are evident with the new SEO friendly URL, I hope you find it better than the old-styled URL.

2. GUI API and Brand new Template Engine with Smarty: This can be a bit tricky to understand. In Mys v1.3.2 one big issue is how to add html tables, forms, links, images and all those elements into the document, Mys v1.3.3 solves this problem with a GUI API. The template engine also has been upgraded to Smarty, it is easy to use and efficient in terms of performance. Getting used to new template system should take minimum time for those of you already familiar with HTML.

3. Breeding System Overhaul: If you have been following my latest blogs, you should've been very familiar with the advanced breeding system. This one is much more powerful than the simple breeding system we had before, admins have full flexibility to control the outcomes of breeding. You can specify which species can be produced with given two types of parent adoptables, you can set a list of conditions for this to happen, you can even turn off the breeding system in debug time.

4. The new Daycare System: The daycare system is completed for Mys v1.3.3, it is a suggestion from the user Iris and I believe it will be a good addition to the software. The daycare center works like a location where users see random or all adoptables eligible for daycare. The admins can decide on both the layout of the daycare system, and a few basic settings. The daycare system is expect to help a great number of aspiring adoptable clickers.

5. Customizable Modules and Sidebar through ACP: Another feature I have planned for Mys v1.3.3 was the customizable sidebar system, and I ended up designing a sidebar capable of handling user-generated modules. With Mys v1.3.3, you can not only manipulate existing modules such as money-bar and links-list, but also creating new modules to display on Sidebar. With this, it should be a simple task to have user avatars shown on the sidebar, if you know just a tiny bit of coding.

6. Minor new features and Glitch Fixes: Mys v1.3.3, on the other hand, has fixed a few bugs from the old version. The theme installer is working fine now, although it does not check validity of your theme folder location so you need to keep track of this yourself. The SYSTEM user glitch with private messages is also fixed, you wont receive fatal error anymore. Minor bugs such as guests sending friend requests and viewing available plugins are also resolved in this version.


Installation Guide:
1. Use ftp to Upload the entire folder Mysidia Adoptables v1.3.3 to your preferred directory, and change the name to whatever you like.
2. Change the CMD of folder "picuploads" to 777, together with its subfolders, this is required to enable user uploading images. Also change the CMD of the subfolders "cache", "compile" and "config" in your template folder to 777.
3. Rename the file config_adopts to config.php, otherwise the script will tell you config.php does not exist.
4. Access the installer script at "http://yoursitename.com/install/index.php", follow the instructions and proceed.
5. Congrats, you've successfully installed Mys v1.3.3. There is no need to manually encrypt your password in Mys v1.3.3, so cheers!

Note: The value pepper code can be generated from a website called: http://strongpasswordgenerator.com/, it can be of any length and may contain symbols. Make sure to delete the file install/index.php after running this script, or your site is potentially at danger if this file is accessed by someone else. Also make sure your server is running on PHP 5.3.0+ and supports PDO, the latter is especially important.


Upgrade Guide:
An upgrader from mys v1.3.2 is available, and should be easy to use. To upgrade, simply upload all script files to your folder and overwrite the existing ones. The config file is named config_adopts.php by default, so your old config file should be safe. Now run the upgrade.php script to complete this task, shouldnt take more than 10 secs.

Note the upgrader may break your site's template file. This is due to the adoption of Smarty template engine, but the benefits of using Smarty offsets this potential issue. Since it does not break your css file, the conversion should be easy. For the first 10 days after Mys v1.3.3's release date, I will be taking requests to convert old user's template .html file into Smarty compatible format. So lemme know if you need help with template conversion, it really is not difficult.

Do not use the upgrader if you have a site with heavily modified script! Mys v1.3.3 also has many significant changes over Mys v1.3.2, I am not sure if old addons/plugins will work but conversion should not be difficult no matter what. What can be sure is that the upgrader will not do its job if your script is highly customized, in this case you need to upgrade manually.


Forum Integration Guide:

First of all, make sure you have both fresh installation of Mysidia Adoptables and MyBB forum. Open the file /inc/config_forums.php, enter each empty field for the database info of your MyBB forum. Then Change the variable mybbenabled from 0 to 1. The very last step is to disable registration on the forum. It is all said and done, new users will have accounts created from both the adoptables site and the forum from now on. In Mys v1.3.3 they also log into site and forum accounts simultaneously! The forum stats is automatically updated whenever a new registration is completed, so there is no need for admins to update forum stats in ACP from now on.


Download Links(both .rar and .zip are provided):

Rapidshare links:

Rar version:
http://rapidshare.com/files/40440522...s%20v1.3.3.rar

Zip version:
http://rapidshare.com/files/30529502...s%20v1.3.3.zip

Mediafire Links:

Rar version:
http://www.mediafire.com/?vramz9l2f9ciu0c

Zip version:
http://www.mediafire.com/?u869zm28oy0bdoa

4Shared Links:

Rar version:
http://www.4shared.com/rar/l3O-WAQ4/...bles_v133.html

Zip Version:
http://www.4shared.com/zip/cGfG7XsR/...bles_v133.html


If you consider the changes from Mys v1.3.2 to Mys v1.3.1 are quite dramatic, this one is not much off. In Mys v1.3.3 the controller classes encapsulate every available actions, and you may need to change your coding style to adapt to the MVC(model-view-controller) direction Mysidia Adoptables is going if you are an aspiring coder yourself.

At this point we only have the 'C' here, while in Mys v1.3.4 the 'V' will most likely make its appearance too. By Mys v1.4.0 I hope to achieve a true MVC architecture design for Mysidia Adoptables, which should be good news for programmers who plan to design mods/addons for the script. The script is still not fully object oriented yet, but we are moving fast towards this destination. In a perfect script everything is an object, we are nowhere close to perfection, nor is perfection achievable, but we can be as close to it as we can.

I thank you everyone who stick to us and this project for so long. Mys v1.3.3 sure did not take as long as Mys v1.3.2 to be released, but I still need to speed this up a bit. The good news is that as the script is becoming more and more object oriented, the development wont take as much time as it used to be moving on from Mys v1.3.1 to v1.3.2. Id say around two to two-half months between each release is a reasonable scenario. I will post my plans for Mys v1.3.4 and v1.4.0 later, please keep track with it if you want to.

Have a great weekend everyone, I hope you enjoy the latest work from Mysidia Adoptables Dev Team.

Hall of Famer
March 16, 2013